Executive Style (June 9th, 2016)

The device that measures cyclist passing distances

“It’s a device that measures one of the most contentious distances in Australian road safety – the amount of space between a bicycle and an overtaking car.

Called the C3FT, it has an ultrasonic sensor mounted on the bicycle’s handlebars to calculate how near the vehicle came to the bike.

Use of the device was pioneered a year ago by police in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a city that has a three-foot buffer law when drivers overtake cyclists – similar to the metre and 1.5-metre passing measures now found in half of Australia’s states and territories.